Staff Reporter:
Member of the British Parliament Simon Danczuk has said that the only way to solve the ongoing violence in Bangladesh is to hold a fresh, fair and neutral election under a caretaker government.
He said: “Bangladesh is such a country where there is no freedom, no democracy and no choice for the people.
The British MP said this while addressing a discussion meeting titled ‘Lessons from the biggest rigged election in the country’s history’ in the Water Hill Hall in East London as the chief guest on Tuesday.
Organised by the Citizen Movement, the discussion was presided over by its convener M. A. Malek.
Simon said, “After one year of the voter less election on January 5 last year we now understand that the election was full of mistakes. We had witnessed casualties of many lives on the poll day. Besides, we also witnessed that the Election Commission had to stop elections in 47 parliamentary seats due to the violence. The Labour Party MP pointed out that we had seen on the screen through different news satellite channels the blockade of roads, violent activities, election boycott by the opposition parties and also the one sided voter less polls.
Portraying a comparable picture of the politics and political parties of the Britain with Bangladesh, he said, if Bangladesh wanted to proceed ahead it has to hold a fresh election participated by all political parties under a caretaker government. “Peace and progress can only be restored through a participatory election.” Simon said if any consensus could be restored among all political parties on the issue of holding a fresh election that would be good for the nation. In this context, I would like to say that Bangladesh again can hold an election acceptable to all through the caretaker government system.
He regretted that in spite of a simple and practiced caretaker system of government, why the political parties failed to come to a consensus to resolve the present political impasse.
Simon criticized the confinement of opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia in her office as well as harassment of journalists, human rights workers and political leaders. This is a hurdle on the way to establishing democratic tolerance in the country, he added.
